2020 Topic 21 Alternative Christmas with ESN (by Miriam Grazier)

  2020 Topic 21: Masterboards

Masterboards are superbly versatile as Miriam is showing today. Looking at her cards they all seem so different yet they are seamlessly connected by sharing the same origin. Making great use of on-trend slimline cards, the pieces also have that lovely vintage vibe.
~ Keren

Hi everyone, it's Miriam with you today, and I'd like to share with you a trio of cards that I created using one masterboard.

I often turn to the same colours for Christmas - either traditional reds and green or blues.  I wanted to push myself out of my comfort zone and so chose colours that I wouldn't normally use for the festive season.  Let's face it, this Christmas, life is likely to be a little bit different to usual.  This was the driver in my alternative colour combo.

I find masterboards really fun to make. They can be a great way of creating cards on mass, and so is perfect for  this time of year.

I tried not to 'think' too hard while creating my background. I just kept layering stamp over stamp.  And the Eclectica Sara Naumann stamps are perfect for this as there are so many smaller stamps with lots of detail amongst the larger collaged stamps. Though as I have shown with the leaves, it is easy to pick out sections of collage elements too.

I ensured that I only stamped the focal images in black so that they stood proud on the backgrounds, even though two of the cards are not multi layered.  This adds to the attraction of making a masterboard as you add so much detail that you don't need to layer and so postage is cheaper if you are sending cards.  It's a win win!

I wanted to show that you don't need to use a full panel for your finished project.  One of the joys of a masterboard is that you can use a small section and it really makes an impact.

Slim dies are trendy in the crafting world at the moment and so I wanted to use these for my festive card making.  There are so many on the market at the moment.  I used new UK manufactured dies.

This card would also be great for a male card - or even a non-festive card.  Perfect for December birthdays.

What was great was that after making my trio of cards I had enough of the masterboard left over to create matching tags too.  There is something very satisfying about creating more than one finished item out of one project. 

If you have never created a masterboard I would really encourage you to do so.  They are fun, satisfying and you can get lost in the creative process. 

On reflection, I would have added more stamping to saturate even the smallest 'blank' space.  But I was happy with my masterboard. 

I would also like to use the same stamp combination with other colours.  It would be good to compare the results.  You could also 'step' it up by adding Infusions, Grunge Paste or embossing powders.  The Seth Apter embossing powders from Wow would also look great.

Thank you for joining me this evening,  

Happy Crafting!

Miriam